Life Stories Blog

As a boy living on his grandfather's Cedarburg farm, Joseph Westphal used to pick up sticks and pound on garbage can covers while listening to music.

"Then he'd turn boxes upside down to make different sounds. He just loved playing the drums," his ex-wife Joyce said of Westphal, who went on to perform for half a century as a drummer and singer with the polka band Barbara and the Karousels and other polka groups. | June 8, 2013»Read Full Article

Fendermen guitarist Jim Sundquist, who with Phil Humphrey sang "Mule Skinner Blues," the top Wisconsin song on the Billboard charts, died this week at age 75 in Minnesota, the Wisconsin State Journal and Minneapolis Star Tribune report.

Humphrey and Sundquist lived in Madison when they formed the Fendermen in 1958. "Mule Skinner Blues" became the highest-charting single from Wisconsin when it hit No. 5 on the Billboard chart in 1960. | June 8, 2013»Read Full Article

The program, "The Music of 'Mad Men,'" featured guest conductor Steven Reineke and vocalists Hugh Panaro and Janet Dacal in a program of music from the era of the cable television series of the same name — i.e., the 1960s. | June 8, 2013»Read Full Article(1)

Joe Aaron played saxophone and clarinet in Milwaukee and beyond for nearly eight decades -- playing with big band singers like Patti Page before World War II and hitting the road with Clyde McCoy and his Sugar Blues Orchestra.

He performed at local jazz clubs such as Caroline's, and played with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in its early days. | June 8, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(4)

When actress Jennifer DiNoia was 5, her parents took her to see a musical production of "The Wizard of Oz" at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

Young as she was, DiNoia wasn't the least bit frightened by the show's villain, the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West. (What actually scared her was the big-headed Wizard.) Instead, she was captivated by the sight of the witch flying over the audience. | June 8, 2013»Read Full Article